Growing Herbs

by Diana Greenwood Mead

Welcome to our gardening feature where Diana Greenwood Mead, our gardening expert answers your questions every week.

CLICK HERE to email your question and if it is featured we will send you a SupermarketGuru tote bag to say thanks!

This week Cindy Merino from Irvine, California is trying to grow her own herbs and writes to Diana:

I try to grow herbs indoors in the winter from seeds. They sprout, then turn black and die. What type of sunlight should I be trying?

Hi Cindy, you're dealing with two sets of problems here.

There are two basic types of herbs.

Secondly the ones that are tender, grow in the shade of shrubs and trees, don't like too much direct sun and like a little more water.
Mint, sage and parsley are some examples.
There are always exceptions – basil with it's big soft leaf - loves sun, sun and more sun. Basil, by the way, roots fantastically well in water and it's always worth trying a few stalks of any leafy herb in a glass of clean water to see if they will root.

Then you have the problem of seasonal growing.
In winter most ordinary plants tend to slow down, stop putting on any new growth, and generally go to sleep until spring. Amazingly, even a seed from a supermarket packet knows all about this, so when you put it in a seed tray and tell it to grow, it sort of rolls over and wants to go back to sleep. To get seeds to grow in winter, they need warmth (a propagator, or a warm windowsill), light – anything but bright hot sun and very little water. More seedlings die off because they are over watered than for any other reason. Keep them just damp, no more. Misting them with a laundry sprayer (only clean water!) will make them sit up and smile.

Finally, I have to admit that though I am a keen gardener I often buy pots of growing herbs from the supermarket in winter, separate them out and re-pot them and find that they do me very well till spring.